"In the daily grind of being Perez Hilton, posting upskirt photos of celebrities is a fairly common task that probably gets little editorial scrutiny. When one of said celebrities is 17-year-old Miley Cyrus, however, lots of serious legal implications regarding child pornography become involved -- as the infamous blogger is now finding out. Hilton posted a photo of Cyrus, apparently sans underwear, and now some are speculating he may find himself in jail thanks to the photo post.

Hilton -- whose real name is Mario Lavandeira -- posted the photo, said to be of Cyrus climbing out of a car in a dress and wearing no underwear, to his Twitter on Monday with the warning: "If you are easily offended, do NOT click here ... Oh, Miley! Warning: truly not for the easily offended!" The firestorm started shortly after.

At 17, Cyrus is still considered a minor, and the posting of the photo could legally constitute child pornography. Though Hilton pulled the photo down from his server, it was there long enough for many sites to take screengrabs of it. (Editor's Note: You will not find the photo on PopEater, now or ever.)

Salon.com's Tracy Clark-Flory quickly investigated the legal consequences, and the experts Salon spoke with say Hilton could be facing some massive legal woes.
"We're not talking about a misdemeanor. You don't have to know what the definition of the law is, all you have to do is knowingly distribute the photograph," Los Angeles-based attorney Jeffrey Douglas -- a child pornography case specialist -- told Salon. He went on to call Hilton's decision to post the photo "suicidal."

While some are asserting that the photo was doctored to falsely portray Cyrus as not wearing underwear, experts insist it likely won't matter. Whether she was or wasn't, the photo that Hilton posted would still fall under child pornography laws.

"That is still a crime and it is punishable just the same," Douglas told Salon.

Salon asserts that if an attorney is so inclined to go after Hilton, "he could be prosecuted on the state or federal level -- or both -- with a conviction potentially resulting in a 15 year sentence and lifetime registration as a sex offender."

Shouldn't the person who took the picture and distributed it to him and others be the one who should be going to jail? If a pap has a picture of a clearly underage girl not wearing underwear, he should delete it immediately, instead he shopped it around. I know Perez isn't innocent in this but to me the person who took the pic and distributed it to other sources should be the one who is accountable. The photographer obviously knew that a picture showing the genitals of one of the biggest child stars in the world would both sell well and be sensationalist.

What about Miley taking pictures of herself in her underwear or otherwise scantily clad doing sexy poses (pictures that can be easily found on Google, by the way)? Or what about other photographers who took upskirt pictures of hers in the past? I'm not defending Perez Hilton nor I condone his attitude (what he did was stupid, to say the least) but he's not the only offender here. There are other people to blame equally for this unfortunate event, and this is definitely not a girl who protects her own privacy.

Salon asserts that if an attorney is so inclined to go after Hilton, "he could be prosecuted on the state or federal level -- or both -- with a conviction potentially resulting in a 15 year sentence and lifetime registration as a sex offender."

If you think about it, Perez kind of deserves for something like this to end up happening to him. After all, his sole to claim to fame is some cheesy little gossip blog. Something's gotta give. He can't spend his whole life denigrating the reputation of celebrities.
He's nothing more than a name-dropping attention whore who needs to drop off the face of the Earth.

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The refinement of haute couture is in what you don't see. Instead of adding, you must remove. -- Claude Montana

yeah to all saying "why perez, he didn't actually TAKE the photos himself"...
yes, he didn't take them, but he distributed and sort of "advertised" them to the public
i mean, you can do whatever you like if its kept private
but he was ignorant enough to broadcast them
so i hope his his obnoxious *** gets what was coming for too long finally